tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56372795016016184482018-03-06T17:12:25.754-08:00Informational Geometryfitting all the pieces togetherStephaniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10793561148143943591noreply@blogger.comBlogger196125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5637279501601618448.post-14342782454340849592017-10-12T10:39:00.000-07:002017-10-12T10:39:25.176-07:00How to Help Grandparents with Their Technology I'm sitting here writing this on my dad's old iMac realizing I could have done a better job helping him with technology over the past few years. I feel like a bad daughter, an interaction designer ought to do a lot better for their parents. My dad was very capable, and fiercely wanted his independence, so I didn't bother him.&nbsp; Still, I was already doing "tech support" for friends and strangers, and I'm realizing now that I could have saved myself a bit of work after he passed me on his gadgets. So here's my advice to people who have an older parent or friend, even if they are not a luddite!<br /><br /><h3><span style="color: #674ea7; font-size: large;">Make yourself the Admin.</span></h3><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><h4><span style="color: #674ea7; font-size: large;">Set up their gmail, give yourself access.&nbsp;</span></h4>Give them their password, make sure it's super easy to remember but tell them not to reuse this password for any reason anywhere.<br /><br /><h4><span style="color: #674ea7; font-size: large;">Set up their iCloud, Amazon Prime, YouTube etc tethered to their new Gmail.&nbsp;</span></h4>Yes, plug their credit card into these accounts, they're still independent! Give them their unique password and save it yourself. If you don't do this you will be sorry when you want to retrieve photos but you can't, because you don't know the password.<br /><br /><h4><span style="color: #674ea7; font-size: large;">Just get them the smartphone they want, put it on your family account.&nbsp;</span></h4>Don't let them deal with any of the account ownership part. If you can set up partial auto-payments from their credit card. Same goes for tablets and smart watches.<br /><br /><h4><span style="color: #674ea7; font-size: large;">Get them sarted with apps.&nbsp;</span></h4>The entire concept of shopping on an app store could be foreign to older folks. Get them started with some fun apps, use the camera, show them what they could do.<br /><br /><h4><span style="color: #674ea7; font-size: large;">Make sure their internet providers / cable TV accounts are set up correctly and you have access.</span></h4>This would be something like their Comcast account. Are they paying tons of money on channels they never watch? OnDemand they don't know how to access? Wifi that never got setup? Yes that all happened with my dad, he probably overspent over a grand $$$$ on Comcast, it's annoying. I actually went out and bought a wifi device not knowing he already had it. Don't let it happen to you!<br /><br /><h4><span style="color: #674ea7; font-size: large;">Give them their privacy and sense of control.</span></h4>If you can set them up in this way, you can sit back and give them their space and sense of privacy. Knowing they are going to be safe, and happier in the great playground of the internet.<br /><br />Stephaniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10793561148143943591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5637279501601618448.post-46987771164808010512017-10-09T11:39:00.000-07:002017-10-12T11:41:53.010-07:00Why Can't Columbus Day Just Be A Food Holiday?Today is Columbus Day. I never gave the day much thought really, except it's a Federal Holiday and in the past few years it's been a paid holiday I get to take. A few years ago a friend of mine posted to Facebook about Christopher Columbus, in doing so she enlightened me about what a shit the guy was.<br /><br />I was in my forties by the time I figured out what a giant douchebag Christopher Columbus was. Seems like a lot of people are just figuring it out because now, all of a sudden, people are defacing statues of him. There's a lot of questioning of patriarchy in 2017. To me, I have to say, Columbus symbolized America, the inception of this place I call home, more than he symbolized patriarchy. And, let's admit that pretty much every European explorer in the 1700s was a prostitute of patriarchal colonialism. So why can't we be realists about the past? Why can't we just celebrate America and how Italians have made America great? With food?<br /><br />My mother was Italian American. Her parents had emigrated with her family en mass and she was born here in the US, in West Virginia. Italian was her <b>first</b> language.&nbsp; The entire family was poor. They labored in coal mines. They were openly discriminated against by other "white" people all around them. I know this because my mother told me about it.<br /><br />In the US my mom had the opportunity to succeed in a way that she would never have been able to in Italy. She was the first college educated person in her family, including men. She went on to get a dual masters degree. She worked hard, had a good career and a nice home. When I came along in the 70s I didn't even know what discrimination was. I had to learn what it was. Both my parents said it was a very bad thing, because first it's OK to discriminate against one type of person, and the next thing it's OK to discriminate against you because you're Italian. I still hold this lesson in my heart. Italian Americans have some terrible stereotypes. While I enjoyed The Sopranos immensely I want to be associated with that stereotype as much as my African American friends want to be associated with The Wire.<br /><br />Some people have called for a renaming of Columbus Day to Indigenous People's Day. Sigh. Great. Everyone else gets their own day except us. If every Irishy person in the world can get religiously drunk on March 17th, then why is it so hard to celebrate Columbus day with Chianti and some pizza? I think most Italian Americans want people to see the positive. We can all complain about how much of a shit Chris Columbus was while appreciating the food, the fashion and culture of Italy, which has contributed a lot to the United States. And for the record, we should have an all new holiday for indigenous people. They deserve more than a recycled day.Stephaniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10793561148143943591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5637279501601618448.post-85718884231802411202017-07-12T12:59:00.004-07:002017-07-12T13:00:55.831-07:00Steph's Advice to Fix Uber<h4><i>Dear Uber,</i></h4><br />Here we are. You've finally canned Travis Kalanick, what took you so long? You used to be cool but that was like, four years ago. For the past couple of years it just feels like you've been coasting off of your success from the past. How much longer can that go on? I guess if I was being showered with VC gold I would be hanging onto those old victories too. But you're a tech company, you provide a service to consumers, haven't you learned anything from your neighbors at Apple and Google about delighting customers? I'm sorry but you need to try harder. Your vision needs to be much much bigger, and it needs to include people outside of the C suite or Uber won't last.<br /><br />If I may give some advice to your product, UX, and marketing teams it would be this:<br /><br /><h2>Build up your brand</h2>I know, I know, you think you did this already. But you didn't. I have never seen a single ad from Uber encouraging me to ride. No TV ads, no radio, no print ads, not even internet ads. Really? Not even a feel good ad like Apple puts out? Try harder.<br /><br /><h2>Listen to your customer</h2>I know you have ratings and reviews that's good. What are you doing with that data? Maybe to riders it feels like this information goes into a black hole. I bet if you ask people you'll uncover a landslide of great improvements. Try that.<br /><br /><h2>Be a service, not an app</h2>The simple act of pressing a button and getting a ride is a great start. But in order to grow, to get more customers using Uber more often you need to delight people. And human beings main point of contact with Uber is not the app, it's the cars, and the drivers. This is you're "Netflix Moment", Uber. Your challenge is to grow your business beyond the app. YOU need your own "Orange Is The New Black". Netflix started producing content, not just delivering content. Now, people are happy and not just subscribers, actors, producers, artists are making money too. It's a win-win that leads to even more profit. You need to start taking the ride experience to a whole other level and you're not going to achieve that with a load of contractors and some borrowed cars. YOU need to own your cars. YOU need to treat your good drivers as well as your corporate employees. You could do a lot right there.<br /><br /><h2>You have great data on people, use it</h2>I know you know this already but it seems like you're doing nothing with the data. With this information you can find patterns to expand ridership. With your data you know who your best drivers are and you can reward them. With this information you could have several drivers operating a single Uber owned vehicle equitably. You can turn efficiency gains into customer delight!<br /><br />Hopefully a change in leadership will shift the focus away from being a "hot tech company" to a service that people can't get enough of.... With growth and revenues to follow.<br /><br />Stephaniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10793561148143943591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5637279501601618448.post-75860886714397119932017-05-04T14:54:00.000-07:002017-05-04T14:54:49.125-07:00How to NOT Get Your Email HackedNever transmit STDs - Software Transmitted Diseases<br /><br />I came up with this saying over 10 years ago. And today it's more relevant than ever thanks to Google Docs. Fortunately there are some simple rules I'd like to share and please feel free to pass this along.<br /><br />The rule is simple - NEVER click on a link emailed to you unless you can absolutely verify it is legitimate.<br /><br />Sub rule 1: If the email with link is from a business like your bank or from any online account you might have - Go directly to that website instead of clicking on the link in your email.<br /><br />Sub rule 2: Tell friends, family and colleagues not to send you emails that look phishy. If they must share something over email ask them to at least write a sentence or two along with the link to show that the email is legitimate.<br /><br />Sub rule 3: DO share with everyone these rules.Stephaniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10793561148143943591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5637279501601618448.post-90120552836464750062017-03-14T12:43:00.000-07:002017-03-14T12:49:35.193-07:00Comments UnchainedWhen I run for president, will people dredge up this blog? Will people even know to connect this, with me, and what will happen when that happens? Answer, probably a lot of crap I never expected to happen will happen.<br /><br />I used to think comments were the best thing to happen to the internet. Right around 2007, when Facebook opened up to the rest of the world I marveled at their interface. The interaction design was perfection. My photo sitting right there next to a little box practically making me reply to every little thing posted to Facebook. Compelling and sticky, the perfect User Experience really connecting people, with words. This type of interface had already been around, in the form of self publishing and "user generated content". I loved the disruption a decade ago, especially when in 2009 Gourmet magazine ceased and the editor,&nbsp;Christopher Kimball <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/08/opinion/08kimball.html" target="_blank">penned his gripes in the New York Times</a>.<br /><br /><h3><span style="background-color: white; font-family: &quot;georgia&quot; , &quot;times new roman&quot; , &quot;times&quot; , serif;"><span style="color: #134f5c; font-size: large;">"The shuttering of Gourmet reminds us that in a click-or-die advertising marketplace, one ruled by a million instant pundits, where an anonymous Twitter comment might be seen to pack more resonance and useful content than an article that reflects a lifetime of experience, experts are not created from the top down but from the bottom up. They can no longer be coronated; their voices have to be deemed essential to the lives of their customers. That leaves, I think, little room for the thoughtful, considered editorial with which Gourmet delighted its readers for almost seven decades."</span></span></h3><br />The gall, I thought in 2009. I thought Kimball was speaking from a privileged perspective and didn't get it. Today in 2017 I am not so quick to criticize.<br /><br />As an interaction and interface designer of more than 20 years I have been constantly observing how people interact with this thing we are all staring at right now. The web. Lately I have been paying a lot of attention to comments. I've noticed how the Washington Post's comments are insanely bad, but funny, because they are pretty much unmoderated. While the NYTimes comments are much better in all around quality because they <b>are</b> moderated. I've also seen how some websites have communities that self-moderate comments, or how groups will learn over time to self police comments on their venue of choice. But there are still many structural flaws to commenting of which only human moderation can fix a few.<br /><br />A funny thing happened when I stopped using facebook. I got smarter, and a lot happier. Why did this happen? I think for a year leading up to the election, it wasn't the fake news or rude memes that frustrated me about what I was seeing online - it was people's responses to everything. Or even that everyone felt the need to respond to everything, no matter how stupid it was. Like stepping in dog poo and then strolling around the house ignorantly wondering what the weird smell is, that's how I felt a lot of users were reacting to the web. NO no no! Don't spread poo! I was trying to point out that some of these topics people were sharing were just "click bait". Stuff designed to make people react, usually angrily, and without thinking. I was fine with the cute animals but I was seeing less kittens and more mean and angry stupid shit. The more I tried to defend my idea of intelligent user interaction the more stupid shit I'd get stuck to my shoe.<br /><br />Here's the really dumb part. Facebook was already profitable in 2008. Twitter was insanely profitable. A bunch of Silicon Valley fat cats and their VC friends are getting even richer on the backs of YOUR POSTS AND COMMENTS. So while people like me and you sit around ranting online in a comments section (I am totally guilty of this still without Facebook) we are literally handing money over to a bunch of strangers who don't deserve it. People who will now get to pay less taxes on the wealth generated from our words. We The People have enabled the biggest advertising orgy in existence simply by the fact that we can't help ourselves from complaining and we can't look away from our screens. &nbsp;Is the real world so boring that we have nothing better to do? <br /><br />Stephaniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10793561148143943591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5637279501601618448.post-51927175080253764232016-11-16T10:08:00.000-08:002016-11-16T10:11:42.506-08:00Fake News Is Bad User Experience - Solutions for Combatting Fake NewsI was only a little surprised to read yesterday during my commute about fake news. About a month ago I saw an advertisement online titled "<a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=Bigger+Than+Snowden&amp;oq=Bigger+Than+Snowden&amp;aqs=chrome..69i57.481j0j1&amp;sourceid=chrome&amp;ie=UTF-8" target="_blank">Bigger Than Snowden</a>" someone actually paid money towards an online ad campaign to purport that electromagnetic weapons are being used by the government to covertly target, monitor, and torture victims. Seriously. The link above goes to &nbsp;google search results and you can see how this nonsense has been smeared around the internet as if it's true. Which it's not.<br /><br />Did fake news catapult It (I'm not saying It's name) into the White House? <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/09/us/politics/debunk-fake-news-election-day.html" target="_blank">NYTimes seems to think so</a>. And you know what, I think so too. As a User Experience designer I know how to pull the same exact tricks that creators of fake news pulled. Any of us web professionals could easily fool a lot of people with fake stories.<br /><br />Then I was a little surprised to read today about a group of college students who already solved the fake news problem in a hackathon.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.sfgate.com/technology/businessinsider/article/It-only-took-36-hours-for-these-students-to-solve-10614549.php" target="_blank"><b>It took only 36 hours for these students to solve Facebook's fake-news problem</b></a><br /><br />Good for them.<br /><br />For months leading up to the election I was flagging content on Facebook. Content that was offensive but not technically abusive by Facebook's terms. There were a lot of mean, belittling, inaccurate posts that are designed to stoke people's anger (or fear) that are OK to post on Facebook. I saw people being really mean with an image composed of 2 photos, one of Michelle Obama and the other of Beyonce. This wasn't fake news. It's perfectly fine to put this on Facebook. &nbsp;A lot of meanness and vitriol was cultivated about the Obama's on social media, and I didn't see the point of cultivating all this anger, until November 9th.<br /><br /><h3>Facebook Needs to Make an Effort</h3>Frankly, it diminishes the User Experience of Facebook to visit the site and see a litany of angry memes. I like that Facebook let's me unfollow friends that are bothering me, but the flagging could be a lot more robust.<br /><br /><ul><li>Bring the humans back. Just re-hire human moderators. You can afford it.</li><li>There should be an "inappropriate" flag that aligns with standard etiquette. Maybe "inappropriate" content should persist but with an overlay of a scarlet letter. like this:<span style="background-color: yellow;"> <span style="color: red; font-size: large;"><b><i>I</i></b></span> .</span> So people can continue to share it but they know that they are sharing something that's deemed rude.&nbsp;</li><li>There should be a "false information" flag.&nbsp;</li><li>Would love it if originators of content are revealed. There should be origination information about a post including the publishing website, country of origin, and other meta data.&nbsp;</li><li>Display suspected fake content in front of people NOT tuned to like it. Let people vet news posts that they normally would not see because these posts live outside of their personalized experience. And then allow these users to apply the "false information" flag.&nbsp;</li><li>Remove the fake news content from Facebook. The only way to stop fake news from being circulated to begin with, is to discourage it entirely by making the effort to post it too tedious.&nbsp;</li></ul><br /><h3>Google Needs to Make an Effort Too</h3>The problem I am seeing in Google Search is pretty simple but still bad. Some of the more outrageous lies are spread via Google, sortof like it's algorithms have run amok and nobody's paying any attention to what they're doing. Here's what I saw and I brushed it off at the time. I'm trying to search for a popular news story, and the top result is something completely different. &nbsp;The #1 result was coming back with some scandalous political YouTube post completely unrelated to my search.<br /><br />Google started including <b>comments</b>&nbsp;on YouTube videos in their search results. So this enabled people to game google's search and get a piece of content like a YouTube video to appear on an unrelated search term.<br /><br />It's against Google's terms of use to trick web pages into ranking higher in search. But it still works. Google is going to have a serious problem of scale on their hands if they allow this ecosystem of misinformation persist. I remember the ad-farms that used to pollute my search results in 2006, before Google tamped down on websites that were really only a collection of ads. &nbsp;My search results are becoming polluted now, and again, this is bad User Experience and makes me want to use Google less.<br /><br />I know Google has the capabilities to apply an extra layer of information to their search results to make it obviously clear that the content on that website is deemed fake. After all, here is the <a href="https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&amp;ion=1&amp;espv=2&amp;ie=UTF-8#q=denver+guardian" target="_blank">Denver Guardian</a>, A fake news site. The way this site is presented in Google's search results makes it appear as if it's completely legitimate. This screenshot was taken today, November 16th, a day after the NY Times article called it out as a fake site. Here is Google giving the impression that this "FBI agent..." story is legit.<br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jVi1pWqY9_8/WCydiYXBmhI/AAAAAAAADzw/GwVBVOfGRgkuvHOzCmFAJ8UOuWqsYGRlgCK4B/s1600/DenverGuardianGoogleFail.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="243" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jVi1pWqY9_8/WCydiYXBmhI/AAAAAAAADzw/GwVBVOfGRgkuvHOzCmFAJ8UOuWqsYGRlgCK4B/s320/DenverGuardianGoogleFail.png" width="320" /></a><br /><br />If Google is "Organizing the World's Information" I would have to give it a D grade. Does Google expect newspapers to fight back with stories??? If these tech companies don't fix these loopholes of misinformation, then rational normal content creators with suffer and we will all be poorer as a result.Stephaniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10793561148143943591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5637279501601618448.post-11989464510648108052016-08-16T12:07:00.001-07:002017-03-15T09:22:44.922-07:00Managing to JIRA is Not Agile<h4>How do you know if your JIRA/Agile project has a problem?</h4><ul><li>You are constantly talking about “improving the process”</li><li>There’s a blurry line between design and development indicating design is not being managed.&nbsp;</li><li>Work is getting done for the ticket, and not for the project.&nbsp;</li><li>Burn down rates are more important than deliverables.&nbsp;</li><li>People are working slower, not faster.&nbsp;</li><li>JIRA drives the project management instead of planning.&nbsp;</li></ul><h3></h3><h2></h2><h2>A Bad Pattern Has Emerged - JIRA Does Not Compliment Design</h2>For years I’ve worked on more than a half dozen Federal websites for various agencies, from the US Patent Office to USAID and a couple more places. I’ve participated in a very diverse set of projects with even more diverse teams and working styles. But two things have remained consistent throughout, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agile_software_development" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Agile development process</a> and <a href="https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">JIRA</a>. All projects have been, or tried to be, Agile. Most projects use JIRA, a web-based project management and tracking tool made by <a href="https://www.atlassian.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Atlasssian Software</a>. &nbsp;<u>Here’s the thing, ALL the projects heavily invested in the use of JIRA have been bad.</u> And those few projects that have not relied on JIRA software, have been great. <u>After a recent bad experience on another JIRA driven Federal project I see the pattern, and the problem is in part, with JIRA</u>.<br /><br />As a Designer I want to create a holistic end-to-end design for my website project. This is a best practice that JIRA disrupts. There’s a balancing act that needs happen between interaction design, web development, and usability and this balance is tenuous, and needs to be managed. Decisions that get made regarding how a page looks, will affect how a page is built, and how much it costs to build. <b>How design work gets managed is as important as the effectiveness of the design work itself</b>.<br /><br />If there’s a disconnect between these three areas, projects start to churn. But here’s the thing about JIRA, it was made specifically for development and then later on adapted to be used for design and other project disciplines. Because JIRA started as a tool for programmers, it’s not so natural for requirements and design. And then, because it’s so heavily promoted as part of the Agile process, which is a big deal on Federal Contracts, Managers “<u>manage to JIRA</u>” and not to the project. Everyone is slightly confused. I’ve seen senior managers struggle on their own projects because of JIRA. They think work is getting accomplished because tickets are being closed and sprints numbers keep climbing, but then stakeholders are frustrated by not seeing real progress. There’s a very blurry line between design and development where production aspects of design work are taken for granted and not managed. It’s undefined what work should go to developers and which work is for designers, and hand-offs between the two are messy. And, this is a big one, if you are a good senior developer (or designer) you work four times faster than a recent grad. The kind of rockstar talent we really want building our government websites for us have a different style of working that is MORE Agile and a lot faster and thorough. This type of talent gets really bogged down when they work in a “managing to JIRA” situation. Why would you want a $200/hour person (this is the rate the government pays their vendors) spending time on JIRA (or Confluence) and not doing actual work?<br /><br /><h2>JIRA is Bad for Usability and User Testing&nbsp;</h2>Ask any JIRA coach how to incorporate&nbsp;usability testing, and you will get a blank stare. QA testing, OK, usability no. Usability testing is vague in the Agile process so people make their own decisions about how to (or not to) do usability work depending on how they feel about it.<br /><br />On a few Federal projects that did NOT USE JIRA here’s what I observed. Everything went great, work was completed quickly, the client was happy. These were mainly design projects (because I am a designer), development was going to be done separately after the design. Because these were design projects the work of design was being managed better than on the bigger combined discipline projects. In other words, design was not taking a back seat to development, and consequently planning for each area, including development was easier. How do you know what resources you actually need until you have a picture of what you are actually making? I’ve found that when development drives the design, spending on developers will go way up. Your project can be “in development” forever. It can be a lot more cost effective to separate design from development and create clear boundaries between the two.<br /><br /><h2>How Can We Make our Federal Agile Projects Better?&nbsp;</h2>Maybe the design process needs to be a different separate process from development? Maybe managers should interact with JIRA and let team members focus on dong what they do best. Good senior designers should get more client exposure and can manage aspects of design work, especially if project managers and clients aren't as&nbsp;<u>experienced</u>&nbsp;with design. I think Agile is better for maintenance on websites and software, and doesn’t work when you are trying to create a brand new site. Too many different processes for something brand new vs. evolving something already running. And then there's planning. The projects that went very smoothly for me were very well planned before anything was started. What this tells me is that management needs to BE Agile too (not just close tickets), in order to maintain balance, costs and sanity.<br /><br /><h2><b>Work With Professionals Who Already Do Agile Well</b>&nbsp;</h2>There are lots of companies who understand design as well as technology and development. &nbsp;A little research can connect you with these folks. But these companies are not "Fed-Ready" and that's a real problem that needs to change.<br /><br />For comparison, here's a company that develops apps, and this is a great informative read.<br /><br /><a href="https://fueled.com/mobile-2/fueled-agile-app-development/" target="_blank"><b>HOW TO BUILD AN APP USING AGILE DEVELOPMENT</b></a><br />- By Fueled - 10/04/2016<br /><br /><b><span style="font-family: &quot;courier new&quot; , &quot;courier&quot; , monospace;">The Agile Development Process</span></b><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;courier new&quot; , &quot;courier&quot; , monospace;">"Again, it’s important to keep in mind that agile development encompasses many different methodologies. No business needs to use all of them, nor could any one business possibly use all of them. As such, the process varies depending on the project. "...</span><br /><br /><a href="https://fueled.com/blog/how-much-does-it-cost-to-develop-an-app/" target="_blank"><br /></a><br /><br /><br />Stephaniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10793561148143943591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5637279501601618448.post-44838664895154265992016-04-21T10:26:00.000-07:002016-04-21T10:27:04.066-07:00Dear FontShop (and Adobe) your Usability Sucks<h2><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif;">Dear FontShop</span></h2><div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">First your Adobe plugin does not work - at all - this is probably because of Adobe though and not you. They seem to have major problems with their extensions / add-on manager in Creative Cloud. I already complained to Adobe and am trying to work with them to resolve this. This is just an FYI.&nbsp;</div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">Second, your new website design is awful! You threw usability under the bus for??? For responsive design??? Who shops for fonts on their cell phone??? AGGG!</div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"></div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">You didn't even need to update your site it was great a few years ago, I could search very quickly -&nbsp;<b>now it takes me FOREVER to do a search</b>.&nbsp;</div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">I used to be able to save or favorite a font very quickly -&nbsp;<b>now I have to go through several clicks to save or favorite a font. </b><i>Why can't I do this right off of search like I could before?</i></div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">And I used to be able to preview fonts quickly and precisely -&nbsp;<b>now I am still struggling trying to figure out how to preview fonts.&nbsp;</b></div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">In the past I would have been able to do all this on FontShop in an hour or so and this has literally taken me days. Days. And I'm on a deadline and it sucks.&nbsp;</div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">I am not happy. Can you PLEASE REVERT BACK to your old non-responsive website?</div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">I don't expect you to do this, revert your site back, but PLEASE PLEASE PLASE fix these problems. I don't think I'll be able to purchase or even recommend FontShop to anyone in it's current state. And please don't get all hipster with your next redesign. Nevlle Brody was only awesome back in 1999</div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">Thank you</div>Stephaniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10793561148143943591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5637279501601618448.post-14412276716514518812016-01-03T19:22:00.001-08:002016-01-03T19:23:38.444-08:00A User Experience Designer And Her New PhoneHappy New Years! One of my resolutions this year is to be more creative. And since it is now officially the New Year I thought, why not get off to a good start and write a post on the blog? I know, right? It's been too long.<br /><br />Last year, 2015, my resolution was to save money. Nothing like buying a fixer upper to put that resolution at the top of your list every year!&nbsp;It came time for a phone upgrade but as I was in frugal-mode (still am, frankly) I waited, patiently for Black Friday to get me a deal. &nbsp;I used to have an iPhone 5c. A sleek little number with a candy like green plastic shell. It served me well on commutes to and from DC. I would see other 5cs on the commute and smile at complete strangers. Like, "yeah, I see you and your cool affordable iPhone. You know it. I know it. We're in the club." Mostly these people just ignored me.<br /><br />At last, Black Friday came, but the internet said there were no deals! How could that be? Maybe I had too much turkey? Saturday I get in my car and drive to the store, and in fact, there were deals. (By the way, bad UX Target.com). I waited a few hours, and asked myself, &nbsp;"Self, am I really ready for this commitment?" I replied, "email, tax deduction, you need it." So I did! But when I got up in the line to buy a new phone, all they had left were iPhone 6s PLUSes. The big one. Which I didn't really want. "Two hundred and fifty dollar credit" I thought. It's the only size left, so I bought a big ole 6 plus.<br /><br />This thing is so big I thought right away I could use it as a snowboard. &nbsp;I kept the plastic on it for over a week thinking I might exchange it, when they had more inventory. Every time I'd whip it out of my pocket, I thought about how big it is. I dared not to put a cover on it lest it look even larger than it already is. I hate phone covers anyway. It's so big. On Metro I felt like I was wagging around a wad of $900 cash. Come rob me! &nbsp;And then, after about a week, I used the camera the first time. And the clouds parted and the sun shown down. Or was that the gloriously large display shining my photos, just taken, right back in my face. Wow this camera is good, and this enormous screen is great for taking photos. I get it now. The plastic film was finally removed.<br /><br />It's still big, but I'm getting used to it. I wonder if I like it so large? When I glance around, I see that my phone is larger than most other people's phone. I wonder if this is how SUV drivers feel. I can always downsize. It's just a phone. It's not a marriage. Size isn't everything.Stephaniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10793561148143943591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5637279501601618448.post-29127462870523688492015-05-27T06:58:00.002-07:002015-05-27T06:58:48.281-07:00I'm Federal ContractingBIG ANNOUNCEMENT<br /><br />I am a Federal Contractor. I have been contracting to the US Federal Government since the beginning of 2014. And its a good place to work, a lucrative place for tech and developers to be. And it's completely fucked up at the same time.<br /><br />So here I am contracting for the blank-blank-blank. (I'm not allowed to tell you) It was a hard road just to get to this point. Just to do some strait forward (and much needed) usability work for - - - . If it's this difficult, to get hired as a senior user experience (usability) consultant then imagine how completely backwards all government websites will be for the foreseeable future!<br /><br />I don't want to be negative. Yes this is a sarcastic blog post. There are a few silver linings in Government contracting. I'm actually kicking butt improving web software at the blank-blank-blank. I haven't been happier since when I worked at Kick.com. But overall it's a mess, and a grossly expensive taxpayer funded mess that needs to change. The good guys working here get shafted by bigger firms that know how to play the contracting game better. Taxpayers loose left and right. Businesses too. It's generally a loose-loose environment which I'd like to see improve.<br /><br />I don't understand why Google doesn't have a big fat office right in downtown DC? It might actually lift the culture in Washington out of the Mad Men era.<br /><br />So the next time you do your taxes or fill out a Government form (like jury duty) remember, good Customer Experience is not an accident. Good experiences are planned. Period. Seems like a good role for government would be to plan ahead and create good experiences for folks.Stephaniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10793561148143943591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5637279501601618448.post-13868822800086359792015-05-05T07:48:00.000-07:002015-05-05T07:48:01.176-07:00An Array of Solar Powered Desalination Stills So in reading about the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/15/us/the-debate-over-californias-drought-crisis.html" target="_blank">drought in California</a> I was inspired to try to design some kind of solution. I guess I was frustrated after reading the plethora of news about the drought and seeing little to no solutions mentioned. Just NYTimes naggery and finger pointing and stuff about how California's agricultural industry simply does not manage water well. How California has never implemented drought measures that other parts of world has. And then, maybe it's because I'm a gardener and I recycle water that I actually see this drought problem easily solvable.<br /><br />So here's my little Temple Grandin moment! An "array" of solar stills floating like enormous doughnuts on the sea.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QycyCSUxp1Q/VUjXsQhiBKI/AAAAAAAADlI/Ke6UIKVMEoc/s1600/SolarDesalinationArray-01.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QycyCSUxp1Q/VUjXsQhiBKI/AAAAAAAADlI/Ke6UIKVMEoc/s1600/SolarDesalinationArray-01.png" height="414" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">It would make me really happy if some people in California would try this out.&nbsp;</div><br />Stephaniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10793561148143943591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5637279501601618448.post-50584648074917885872015-02-11T07:50:00.003-08:002017-10-12T10:41:40.957-07:00Confliction and The Measels<br />Confliction - A sickness of conflict between one political idea and another.<br /><br /><h2>The Measles Outbreak of 2015</h2><br />We can't tell parents what to do with their own kids<br /><br />But we want to tell parents what to do<br /><br />But the Government has NO RIGHT to tell parents what to do<br /><br />But we really really really just want to tell parents what to do<br /><br />But we can't. It's not cool<br /><br />OK but seriously, some other kids are at risk, and we should just make laws<br /><br />NO, we can't tell parents what to do with their own kids. THAT is already law!<br /><br />How about we trot out doctors and be really nice about telling parents what to do?<br /><br />Yeah, but a lot of people understandably don't trust pharmaceutical corporations<br /><br />OK let's use statistics, numbers! Let the data convince the parents!<br /><br />BUT, the LAW says, we can not tell parents what to do with their own kidsStephaniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10793561148143943591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5637279501601618448.post-68527103322392171272014-11-04T14:27:00.003-08:002014-11-04T14:27:36.061-08:00Where is My Ultra High Definition Digital Sound?I keep reading about new technologies coming out and hearing about the wearbales innovation. Seems like Silicon Valley is trying very hard to break into some new markets, and they're pushing into some unfamiliar territory to get there. Yesterday I was reading about apps that will tell if the person you're speaking to on your smartphone, is lying. Yup. I suppose there's some benefits to technology like that but here's why it's being developed.... <i>to sell you more stuff</i>. It's more Big Brother &nbsp;advertising crap.<br /><br />What about just improving the good old stuff we know everybody loves and will buy? Where is my ultra high definition sound? Better than a CD, over the internet?<br /><br />This seems like a multi-billion dollar challenge, that is technically and commercially obtainable. The data storage is there, the marketplaces are there, god knows the cloud is there, and the consumers are there - what's missing is the high definition sound! All that takes is some more technology, which, is already there!!<br /><br />Better yet, this could revive artists and artistry. A group who have been dealt a bad hand in the internet revolution and don't make a dime from services like Spotify.<br /><br />So let this be a call to somebody! Apple, Sony, Google, hell... Amazon. Some crazy software sound engineer in college! Sound me up. <br /><br />I realize SACD exists, but I can't stream it on my laptop.Stephaniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10793561148143943591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5637279501601618448.post-15428822351562368772014-06-12T16:12:00.000-07:002014-06-12T16:12:05.973-07:00Usability Part 2 - How To Do ItIn my last post,&nbsp;<a href="http://informationalgeometry.blogspot.com/2014/05/dont-fear-user-part-1-empowering.html">Don't Fear The User Part 1 - Empowering Software Development With Usability Techniques</a>, we talked about what usability is. The practice of making software easy to use. And that you accomplish this by listening to your target end user. Incidentally there is a great post on <a href="http://creativegood.com/blog/first-the-bad-news-why-customers-still-matter/" target="_blank">Good Experience</a> today where Mark Hurst mentions his tweet:<br /><br /><em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; max-height: 1000000px; padding: 0px;">Before you get customers involved, first you should probably check if the boss can handle bad news.</em><br /><br />This is important because before you try to do usability work your boss needs to be on board. If you're boss is fearful and can't handle bad news then it might be a futile effort. Instead usability should be empowering. It will resolve problems and can help an organization meet its goals. &nbsp;Now I'm going to elaborate on how to do it.<br /><br /><h3>Step 1: <b>Who</b> is The End User?</h3>User Experience Designers when we go to work, we do this thing called "User Centered Design". And all this means is we try to focus on The End User when we're designing. Let's use Blogger - this blog - as an example. If I were to sit down and start creating this Google product we know as Blogger, the first question I would ask myself is, "Who is the end user for Blogger?" THAT is the person you design for, not your client or your boss. &nbsp;You want to target a persona that accurately represents your end users. If you do design for your client, boss, or self the problems are: a) you miss a lot of good ideas b) you miss all kinds of important details c) you might overcomplicate things for the person who needs to use that software d) your boss's wants are in conflict with the end user's etc.<br /><br />Common question: <b>But what if we want everybody to use our product?</b> There are techniques for that too. For large-scale high traffic websites &amp; apps, there are best practices. And if this is your product, you really need to work with a professional UCD person and I'd love to speak with you more :^)<br /><br /><h3>Step 2: Listen to The End User</h3>Wow I know right? This is so common sense you're probably rolling your eyes. OK but LISTEN - there are <b><i>ways</i></b> to listen to your customers. You don't just want to fire off a bunch of surveys, that's sooooo marketing. Nor do you want to ask for a list of all the features the user wants (they'll ask for everything). The best thing to do is listen to users as they interact with something. You take notes and record your research. It's fun and easy. This is also known as <b>User Research</b>, and sometimes referred to as <b>Listening Labs</b>.<br /><br />Common question:&nbsp;<b>But we aren't even settled on a product idea?</b>&nbsp;Listening to your potential customers will help you figure this out. Watching them use a competitor's product will reveal all the ways you can succeed. If you work with an experienced product designer (ahem) they can help you glean this information from user research.<br /><br /><h3>Step 3: Focus on The End User When Developing Your Product</h3>There's always this temptation while developing something to look at your colleagues and say, "Wouldn't it be cool if it did this?!" It's fun to come up with cool ideas but it's better to postpone frosting the cake until after you bake it. Never forget who you're designing for. Don't let your bosses forget. Remind the developers so they don't forget and code a bunch of shortcuts and hacks.<br /><br /><h3>Step 4: Usability Test</h3>This is not QA testing. <i>You are not looking for bugs</i>. <b>What you are testing is weather or not the end user can perform a task using the product.</b> How long does it take that person to perform the task? How many clicks do they have to make to do what they need to do? Can they find the button? Do they know what feature lives in that dropdown menu? &nbsp;That is usability testing.&nbsp;<i> See how agnostic this is?&nbsp;</i><br /><br /><h3>Step 5: Apply the Research and Testing To Your Product</h3>Don't just report your research and testing, <u>apply it</u>. Make concrete recommendations for how to fix flaws in the UI that impede people from performing a task. Ideally this is all done as part of a larger development process and you have time allocated for usability testing <i>and</i> time to make changes to your interface.<br /><b><br /></b><b>Here is how to make this sound like bad news to the boss:</b><br />"When we did research, people complained that it was hard to sign-up. When we tested the sign-up process, only half the users were able to sign-up."<br /><br /><b>Instead it's better to discuss improvements you can make to remedy the problem:</b>&nbsp;"When we did research, people complained that it was hard to sign-up. When we tested the sign-up process we found that if we reword the title and make&nbsp;this button&nbsp;larger we can make sign-up easier." <br /><br /><br />That is how you do it. Let me know if you have questions.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Stephaniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10793561148143943591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5637279501601618448.post-21535501446544074202014-05-08T10:35:00.001-07:002014-05-08T10:43:06.860-07:00Don't Fear The User Part 1 - Empowering Software Development With Usability Techniques<h3><b>Usability is the practice of making things easy to use</b></h3>Usability is the practice of making products, especially software, <u><b>easy to use</b></u>.&nbsp; If you can think of some frustrating website that just didn't work, or even a bad customer service experience, you understand how important usability is. <br /><br />The whole world needs usability. Here we are just talking about the intersection where humans and computers meet - software. Since software is exploding, the industry needs user centered design more than ever. As consumers we need our smart phones and apps to be easy to use. But professionals probably need more usability than consumers... just so they can do their jobs. And sadly, way too many B to B applications and enterprise software are unwieldy and difficult to use. <br /><br />There is a way to fix software so it's easy to use. Incorporating usability techniques into your development process accomplishes two things. #1 it allows you to focus on the goal of making your product work as best it can. #2 it keeps software projects honest, prevents money being wasted on endless, directionless development.<br /><br /><h3>What Usability is NOT</h3>Usability is not about design in that it has nothing to do with attractiveness. Usability is not about content, but it involves <i>how</i> people <b>find</b> and <b>interact</b> with content and information.&nbsp; Usability is not about marketing, it's not creative, but good usability leads people to like a particular app as opposed to hating it, and this grows user adoption. <br /><br /><h3>Usability <i>IS</i> Business</h3>It's funny that usability is entrusted to a design team on a project because it has more to do with business goals than design goals. Business people and executives should regard user research and testing as a means to gain more control over their business. At tech companies they will have researchers perform usability testing. But since designers dictate what the User Interface (UI) will be, designers are helpful in translating usability findings into the UI. Still usability needs business's buy-in in order for it to be effective.<br /><br /><h4>Here are some scenarios where a little usability work could have a big impact on business:</h4><ul><li>An application used by your company is confusing, and people need to ask others for help in order to use it.</li><li>You have a massive amount of data, it's so huge you can't make heads or tails of all that information. You need to figure out how to display this data in a way that works for your clients.</li><li>You are customizing off-the-shelf software that comes with all these great "capabilities" and you need help deciding which functions would be best for your business.</li><li>Your company spends way too much money on customer service calls and your business could save a lot by just making your product easier to use. </li><li>It takes too long for people to do their job with the software you are currently using. You can increase revenues if people can do their jobs faster.</li></ul><br />At it's core usability is about listening - to customers, to clients, to the "end-user" and translating that research into a functional UI. It sounds simple, and it is, IF you know how to do it. In part 2 I'll discuss techniques for DIY usability testing and user research. But if you have a large-scale application that needs help then <a href="mailto:design@studioroom.com" target="_blank"><b>contact me for more in depth consultation</b></a>. After more than 10 years of analyzing usability in software, a short consultation may be all you need to fix your usability problems. Stephaniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10793561148143943591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5637279501601618448.post-46508026706516605642014-02-17T13:26:00.003-08:002014-11-04T14:32:54.858-08:00Being an Adult, Saying Goodbye to ContractingYou may think that being a professional Web Product Designer right now is a great job, and it is. You may think that being a pro UX Unicorn AND working for yourself as an independent contractor is an ideal situation, and it can be. You might assume that it's wonderful to work from home, though the best part is simply not having to commute. Some people might covet my connectedness, truthfully, it's an expensive curse. The "Ideal" really falls apart when confronted with the reality...<br /><br />Since 2011 all I wanted was to get off the merry-go-round of freelance work. You might think that having over nineteen years of web experience it would be easy to land a good gig, but I think this hurt me. In Baltimore where I live, depending on who I spoke to it was assumed I was either overqualified (aka expensive), or just too old. I had job leads that didn't manifest. It seemed like every recruiter was playing me (or just bad). I tried to work with a few start-up companies who really needed my level of expertise. For what ever reasons good permanent full time work kept alluding me so I kept contracting, wondering if I really am too old to work in tech.<br /><br /><b>The Effect of Healthcare.gov?</b><br /><br />By October last year things started getting better. I started getting many more good leads for jobs. At the same time I had a pretty good contract position for a small DC based agency. I was earning money while working from home and I had the luxury to explore the growing job market for Senior Experience Designers. Could it be that the Healthcare.gov debacle suddenly made people realize that they needed people with experience working on their website? So many jobs were available I was able to weigh one against the other. Which company paid better? Which ones had a good corporate culture? The shortest commute? There were NO good leads in Baltimore except my contract gig, which was 100% work from home. Would they bring me on full time? Or would I have to commute to DC or further?<br /><br /><b>I'll Take the Commute, Thanks</b><br /><br />By November I felt that I was being undermined on my contract. This ideal situation lost it's luster with the addition of a new "lead" designer who ignored me so thoroughly, I wondered why they wanted to use me in the first place. By Thanksgiving I realized that it probably wasn't the best thing for my career to be an easily dismissed sub-contractor, grateful for whatever crumbs of work that get thrown my way. I could do better.&nbsp; <br /><br />It's a good thing I kept exploring jobs all last year, even though it was a massive time suck. When the right opportunity landed in my lap I was ready. Now I am happy to report the work is good and best of all it's great to feel like a grown-up.<br /><br /><iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="710" scrolling="no" src="//instagram.com/p/kF0eOImmD6/embed/" width="612"></iframe>- - -&nbsp; Stephaniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10793561148143943591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5637279501601618448.post-49017722319192140922013-12-24T08:15:00.000-08:002013-12-24T08:16:28.823-08:00Wishing the Web Some Prosperity Too!IF these wishes come true, I guarantee everybody's lives will get easier and 2014 will be a good year. :) <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QVXMMtTfG18/UrmzCRK5sVI/AAAAAAAADdA/26zkMj3fq2Y/s1600/xmas2014-Card1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QVXMMtTfG18/UrmzCRK5sVI/AAAAAAAADdA/26zkMj3fq2Y/s640/xmas2014-Card1.png" /></a></div> Wishing people learned their lesson in 2013 and we don't have any more websites like Healthcare.gov. Wishing that more websites get designed FOR THE END USERS, and not for some executive. Wishing people see the value in EXPERIENCE. Wishing people hire truly senior talent to work on their website. Stephaniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10793561148143943591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5637279501601618448.post-77202768540782707372013-05-08T16:52:00.001-07:002013-05-09T11:38:32.868-07:00Part 3 of Social Media Marketing - Do's & Don'tsThe funny thing about internet marketing is the people who would benefit from it the most probably are the same people with limited budgets - Artists, writers, and musicians.&nbsp; Independent creative people and students usually don't have an annual marketing budget.&nbsp; If you fall into the Artist category pay attention, this post is for you. I reveal how to simply use social media. If you DO have a marketing budget then <a href="mailto:ssawchenko@gmail.com" target="_blank">contact me</a> and let me show you how to ROCK your internet marketing. <br /><br />Writers have already blazed a trail on the internet and there are many <a href="http://www.bookpromotion.com/" target="_blank">websites dedicated to helping writers</a>. Since I have a Fine Art background and I think like a designer, I'll focus on artists &amp; other kinds of small businesses like restaurants.<br /><br /><h3><b>DO: Get yourself set-up with a website or blog</b></h3>First you need a "hub". A command center where you can connect to all sorts of social media and networking sites. In case you didn't know a blog is actually just another kind of website, just with more 'self publishing' tools. Having your own site is important because this gives you the greatest control over the flow of information and most importantly you can measure - yes you can actually see - the results of your marketing efforts. And then your can fine tune everything, do more business and make more money. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/13/business/smallbusiness/three-keys-to-converting-web-visitors-into-buyers.html?pagewanted=all" target="_blank">Great NY Times article covers this nicely</a>. <br /><br /><b>DON'T: </b>Put off launching your website or blog. Otherwise Google and people on Yelp will talk about you behind your back.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kXPaG1qh8yQ/UYvQkB2mBHI/AAAAAAAADRw/bU1znVi7Z1w/s1600/SocialMediaEngagement2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kXPaG1qh8yQ/UYvQkB2mBHI/AAAAAAAADRw/bU1znVi7Z1w/s1600/SocialMediaEngagement2.png" /></a></div><br /><br /><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">&nbsp;Your goal is to get other people to help you promote your business on social media through their normal sharing activity. </span></b><br /><br /><h3><b>DO: Think like a Marketing Pro and set goals that you want to achieve</b></h3>What is your goal? What do you want to achieve with the internet? You need to be able to answer this question. A good goal for a local bar would be, "To increase average nightly clientele by 25%"<br />Some good goals for small biz people are:<br />- Grow your fan base<br />- Get people to discover you<br />- Get new clients or customers<br />- Sell more products<br />- Rent your space<br />- Find projects to work on<br /><b><br />DON'T:</b>&nbsp; Assume that just having a blog and making a couple of random posts (like everyone else) suddenly makes you a marketing guru. :^|<br /><br /><br /><h3><b>DO: Think like a Marketing Pro and make a plan</b></h3><b>It's critically important that you PLAN AHEAD</b> for all your marketing efforts. You need time to work for you. If you are throwing an event you need to start planning your marketing at least a month ahead of time. If you are a caterer who wants to get work catering weddings then you should be&nbsp; marketing yourself no later than February to get work on a June wedding.<br /><br /><b>DON'T:</b> Wait until the last minute to think about you marketing plan!&nbsp; Otherwise you completely miss opportunities to get your event announced in print media and email newsletters.&nbsp; <br /><br /><br /><h3><b>DO: Pay attention to the timing and frequency of your posts to social media. </b></h3>People mostly cruise Facebook or twitter during their morning commute or during lunch at work. So <a href="http://mashable.com/2011/10/26/time-facebook-posts/" target="_blank">time your big announcement</a> to coincide with the mob of internet users that are likely to see your post. And reiterate your post a few extra times so it reaches as many people as possible. For <a href="http://pinterest.com/173sud/social-media-post-timing-is-everything/" target="_blank">more information</a> on timing of posts just do a search. <br /><br /><b>DON'T:</b> Wait to the 3pm on a Friday to do only one tweet about your bar's happy hour special. You should be tweeting that tantalizing announcement several times earlier in the week. <br /><br /><br /><h3><b>DO:</b> <b>Make good quality posts on multiple social media sites</b></h3>It's all about the quality, and quantity of your posts - where ever you post them. You want to reach as many people as possible, that's the point, so use the services <u>that suit your business</u>.&nbsp; Remember the web is an interactive communication tool and you will interact with people and communicate your story well to be successful.<br /><br /><b>DON'T:</b>&nbsp; Don't go overboard and sign up for every site. It's too much work and you won't maintain them. If you're never going to make a video then don't bother with YouTube.&nbsp; If you find Google+ to be a waste of time, it's OK to not use it. <b>Just be strategic.&nbsp;</b><br /><br /><br /><h3><b>DO: Use photos and images as much as possible</b></h3>People click on images. I've seen the research! It's true! People pause to look at and read images like they never do with text. So always try to include an image with whatever post your trying to make. If you're a bar for example, you should tweet a photo of that happy hour drink. Or better still... get your customers to post photos of your drinks for you!!!&nbsp; This really makes web people like me happy... should you decide to hire somebody like me to help you with social media marketing then this gives us valuable content to work with.<br /><br /><b>DON'T: </b>Write too much. According to research people don't actually read that much online.&nbsp; At least not in social media (not when marketing is concerned). It's better to keep your text short and sweet and use a photo to tell the story.<br /><br /><br /><h3><b>DO: Create business specific profiles</b></h3>If you have a Facebook <b>page</b> as opposed to you normal Facebook <i>profile</i> then you can use all these bonus tools, <a href="https://www.google.com/analytics/" target="_blank">like analytics</a>. This will show you how many people reacted to your posts and even how they interacted with it! This is extremely powerful because this helps you accomplish many thing like helping you write and make better posts that more people are likely to follow through on. Also, this keeps your personal life separate from your business. Facebook offers it's own analytics for pages and you can even run your own targeted advertising on Facebook too. <br /><br /><b>DON'T:</b>&nbsp; Trust me I speak from experience. It's not going to help your business to let everybody read your political rants on Facebook. Keep it professional on your "page". <br /><br /><br /><h3><b>DO: Have a Clear "Call to Action"</b></h3>This is an insider trick. A 'Call to Action' is a design on a web page or advertisement, like a "Buy Now" button or the "Like" button in Facebook. You want to have one of these 'calls to action' in some of your posts. For example, you'll want people to click from Facebook to go look at your new artwork - on your website. And you want this to be clear and obvious. If you can get people to click over to your website you can give them a lot more detail to entice them to buy your stuff. You're more in control.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img alt="Let us help you make web marketing easy! design@studioroom.com" border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PmJfOqM2L7w/UYvO2nXA-tI/AAAAAAAADRk/Q0oXXde_rTw/s1600/WebMarketingSpot-horz.png" title="Let us help you make web marketing easy! design@studioroom.com" /><a href="mailto:design@studioroom.com" target="_blank">design@studioroom.com</a></div><br /><b>DON'T: </b>If you don't have a call to action, then all you are achieving is that somebody might read what you wrote and maaaaybe they might remember it.&nbsp; If you're not clear, they may not notice that you have anything for sale.<br /><br /><br />Like I said <a href="http://informationalgeometry.blogspot.com/2013/04/shamelessness-part-2-why-social-media.html" target="_blank">in my previous post</a>, <u>internet and social media marketing is actual work</u>. But with a good set-up all you need to do is an hour or so a week of good quality posts, to whatever venue on the internet that connects you to the most amount of people for your time and effort. The hardest part really is getting started... And you can always hire me to help you get set-up.&nbsp; &nbsp; Stephaniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10793561148143943591noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5637279501601618448.post-92067181063052442512013-04-11T11:03:00.002-07:002013-04-11T12:44:55.505-07:00Shamelessness Part 2: Why Social Media Marketing Matters & Who Should Use ItThere's been a ton of talk lately about how people can use social media to grow their business. Thanks to the web you don't have to have an expensive marketing budget, you just need to create a few accounts to services like Facebook and Twitter. Last week I wrote part one about social media,&nbsp; a <a href="http://informationalgeometry.blogspot.com/2013/04/be-shameless-art-of-self-promotion-on.html" target="_blank">success story</a> about my client Kevin O'Malley. Next week I'll reveal more details on how to do this stuff yourself. Now I want to explain WHY you should care about social media marketing and explain WHO really needs to use it... <br /><h2><b>How social media marketing works</b></h2><a href="http://www.wypr.org/podcast/commercial-contagions-wednesday-april-10-12-1-pm" target="_blank">Yesterday on my favorite NPR show, the MidDay show</a>, they had an expert speak about Social Media and Viral Marketing. <a href="http://jonahberger.com/" target="_blank">Jonah Berger</a> did a great job at explaining the "viral effect" and demonstrated that social media does indeed work.&nbsp; But Jonah forgot to explain HOW to USE social media which I will reveal in part 3!<br /><br />Here's how it works - Right now millions upon millions of people are doing this... joking, criticizing, reviewing, recommending, and sharing <i><b>something</b></i> with each other in conversation.&nbsp; The internet itself is structured around writing, and the most successful websites, even YouTube, are designed to perpetually foster active chat style conversations. So internet marketing works because it exploits a very popular and natural human activity - talking to each other.<br /><br /><h2><b>WHY you should care about social media </b></h2>The question I get asked from people the most is "Why should I care? What's the point of this, f<i>or me?</i>" The answer is different for different people (see the WHO section below).&nbsp; If you're running a business, <b>you need to manage your reputation on the internet</b>. <span style="font-size: small;">Why? Aside from being a great tool for growing your business, <span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-size: large;">if you don't manage your online reputation then other people, and internet forces completely out of your control can and will hijack your online reputation if you don't take control of it yourself. </span></span></span><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CNNIjxgreSw/UVtOO3RuXyI/AAAAAAAADO0/etK5e63xUHE/s1600/chatting-online.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CNNIjxgreSw/UVtOO3RuXyI/AAAAAAAADO0/etK5e63xUHE/s1600/chatting-online.png" /></a><br /><span style="color: #b45f06;"><i>Imagine this time 1,000,000 and then imagine your business being mentioned in these chats.&nbsp;&nbsp;</i></span><br /><br />So let's use an example of restaurants. <b>Restaurants <i>really</i> need social media marketing </b>because complaints and bad reviews online could literally shut them down. Conversely, praise and good reviews will help them grow. Aside from that, people can make reservations and write reviews all from their smart phones with almost no effort. So customers expectations for restaurants - on the web -&nbsp; are already very high. Admit it, you read the reviews too so you know they work. They also help businesses communicate with their customers and be better.<br /><br />There are at least 7 major websites (or apps) that let people criticize restaurants: <br /><ol><li>Yelp</li><li>Google&nbsp;</li><li>OpenTable </li><li>Zagat</li><li>Foursquare</li><li>Facebook </li><li>Foodspotting ... does anybody use this site?</li><li>Plus a LOT of local websites like your local newspaper </li></ol><h2><b>WHO should care?</b></h2>Although internet and social media marketing is easy - <b>it's still work</b>.&nbsp; If you want to grow your business you should use social media because it is the cheapest and most effective way to promote anything, period. But (I am going to dispel one myth that traditional marketing people won't mention) <b>most people don't <i>need</i> to use social media.</b>&nbsp; So figure out if you need it before investing your time. <br /><br /><b>Who needs social media?</b><br />Any business should care about social media marketing but some businesses benefit more than others. <br /><ul><li><b>Writers</b>, <b>Authors</b> and <b>Bloggers</b> make the best use of social media to grow their audience on a budget.&nbsp;</li><li>So should <b>Artists</b> and <b>Designers</b> for the same reason as writers.&nbsp;</li><li>Any <b>new business that needs to grow quickly</b> should use social media to get the word out.&nbsp;</li><li><b>Restaurants</b>, <b>Hair Salons</b>, and <b>Shops</b> because they interact with the public. </li><li><b>Job seekers</b>, for competitive reasons, can benefit from social media. My friend got a job with the National Parks Service because she ran a blog... about her baby girl. </li><li>People like me who do <b>internet development</b> and <b>marketing</b> need to.&nbsp;</li><li><b>Anybody in a public leadership position</b>, like a professor or head doctor because they have important information to share and they are in a position of authority.&nbsp;</li><li>Tiny local businesses like a <b>neighborhood landscaper</b> would also benefit from a very small and free web presence and a little social media. </li></ul><br /><b>Who does NOT need to waste their time with social media?</b><br /><ul><li><b>Individuals in general</b> don't need social media marketing.&nbsp;</li><li><b>Doctors</b> don't need to market themselves.&nbsp;&nbsp;</li><li><b>Therapists</b> or any profession where <b>privacy is essential</b> should stay away from social media.&nbsp;</li><li><b>Lawyers</b> mostly don't need social media although they can be interesting.&nbsp;</li><li>Isolated successful businesses like <b>my neighborhood bar</b> which is already popular. They don't do happy hours and they never have specials. They do not need social media or any marketing whatsoever.&nbsp; </li></ul>Fun fact: Did you know that more "data" has been created in the past decade, than has been created in the entire previous history of the Earth? That's a lot of joking, complaining, reviewing, and conversing online! What does this have to do with you and your "online reputation"? Everything, it's all about you... and me... and us. So TAKE CONTROL of the the web and make it work FOR you.Stephaniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10793561148143943591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5637279501601618448.post-44431375505168751232013-04-05T09:58:00.000-07:002013-04-05T10:00:02.823-07:00Be Shameless - The Art of Self Promotion on the WebNobody promotes themselves more shamelessly than my client Kevin O'Malley.&nbsp; Kevin is a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Kevin-OMalley/e/B001H6MJ3W" target="_blank">children's book illustrator</a> and he literally walks around with a pad of paper in his hand, he's constantly drawing, at the coffee shop, in the park, everywhere. After Kevin cranks out another instant masterpiece (just like Picasso)&nbsp; - he gives it away! Seriously. He <i>gives away the drawing</i>. Kevin WAS ALREADY a&nbsp; walking social network and he didn't even know it. I must have mumbled a couple of things to him over time about the internet. We friended on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> where Kevin posts a lot of his drawings and works in progress.&nbsp; I told Kevin that he should <a href="http://www.blogger.com/" target="_blank">blog</a> and maybe get on <a href="http://pinterest.com/booksbyomalley/illustration/" target="_blank">Pinterest</a> - since he's already posting drawings to Facebook he mine as well post to a couple more websites.&nbsp; Kevin took these suggestions but still... his website was out of date.&nbsp; Kevin still needed a "hub".&nbsp; So he&nbsp; turned to us, and we made him <a href="http://www.booksbyomalley.com/" target="_blank">a new website</a>. <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hI7SDiGuy0I/UVtZ4ibU3_I/AAAAAAAADO8/j6ByhRB0p1A/s1600/screenshot-newHome.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="555" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hI7SDiGuy0I/UVtZ4ibU3_I/AAAAAAAADO8/j6ByhRB0p1A/s640/screenshot-newHome.png" width="640" /></a></div><br />Thanks to Kevin's incredible content, it was <i><b>easy</b></i> to make him a great new website.&nbsp; Now, anybody that wants to stay on top of Kevin's latest happenings, weather they are drawings or new books, can do so very easily at <a href="http://booksbyomalley.com/">booksbyomalley.com</a>.<br /><br />The funny thing about using the internet to promote yourself is, it's really easy... It's really easy BUT you need to get 'set-up' first. Here's what we did for Kevin: <br /><ol><li>Redesigned and re-coded his website (to make the most out of Google)</li><li>Strategically added his YouTube videos to his website </li><li>Got him on Pinterest and embedded a live feed of his illustrations on his website</li><li>Helped Kevin set-up a blog to start blogging his works</li><li>Tethered his blog and his Facebook page to the website&nbsp;</li><li>Added press with cross linking to enhance everything </li><li>Massaged Google for Kevin</li></ol>Now, all Kevin needs to do is just tell people "please check out my website and tell your friends to check it out too!"&nbsp; Now, whenever he shows off his illustrations, which is all of the time, he just needs to continue being shameless. <br /><br />And so should I...<br /><br /><b>Here is <a href="http://pinterest.com/studioroom/studioroom/" target="_blank">MY Pinterest board</a> with some of my portfolio work. Please contact me for your social media hub.</b><br /><br /><a data-pin-board-width="600" data-pin-do="embedBoard" data-pin-scale-height="500" href="http://pinterest.com/studioroom/studioroom/"></a>- - - <br /><br /><br /><script type="text/javascript" src="//assets.pinterest.com/js/pinit.js"></script>Stephaniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10793561148143943591noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5637279501601618448.post-3957190304187799352013-03-12T17:03:00.000-07:002014-11-04T14:34:12.343-08:00UX Design Process aka Web Product Design ProcessSo... I'm on Pinterest updating a 'board' for my portfolio and I discover that other people have pinned my <b>Experience Design Process</b> graphic from my website. Apparently this graphic comes right up in Google Searches if you search on on Experience Design Process. Since the image <a href="http://www.studioroom.com/the-studio.php" target="_blank">on my site</a> is small I'm re-posting the graphic here! Can anybody guess what this image was originally create for?<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4HZ2DYYODn8/UUc_-QqWehI/AAAAAAAADOc/Qvz1-3RjvJE/s1600/UX-PROCESS-StephSawchenko.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Web Product Design Process Graphic" border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4HZ2DYYODn8/UUc_-QqWehI/AAAAAAAADOc/Qvz1-3RjvJE/s640/UX-PROCESS-StephSawchenko.png" height="322" title="Web Product Design Process Graphic" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span style="color: #bf9000;"><i>I don't know what I was thinking about these colors!</i></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">So what is going on here?</span><br />In the middle of the graphic is a series of linear main steps to take in order to design an interactive digital product. The process starts with identifying a project's goals and ends with meeting those goals. In order to meet those goals you need to do some careful work... Surrounding the steps are a set of tasks (or methodologies) to perform in order to complete each step of the process. Over-arching the entire process are guidelines like "vetting" and "informed iteration" (shown in the yellow zone).&nbsp; Some tasks overlap steps and the entire process is meant to be collaborative and iterative, which means you could repeat tasks based on what you learn from testing or research. Or you'd repeat tasks until you get something right. OR you could repeat the entire process over again based on what you learn the first (or second, or third) time around. You'll notice that one of the first tasks is "Requirements Gathering" which includes getting together all the content and data you want in your product. You'll need <i>something</i> to research, plan and design around. These requirements should map to your end goals when you look analytics reports and you see how people are using your product, and how much it's growing. <br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Here are the steps in the process:</span><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" style="width: 100%px;"><tbody><tr><td align="left" valign="middle" width="70"><br /></td><td align="left" valign="middle">We start every project by identifying the project's goals </td> </tr><tr> <td align="left" valign="middle"><br /></td> <td align="left" valign="middle">Then we research the audience and competitors to identify unique opportunities</td> </tr><tr> <td align="left" valign="middle"><br /></td> <td align="left" valign="middle">We map out a plan, and tailor it with each client to suit their individual needs </td> </tr><tr> <td align="left" valign="middle"><br /></td> <td align="left" valign="middle">We put together all the components (language, images, and interactions) to create a coherent design system</td> </tr><tr> <td align="left" valign="middle"><br /></td> <td align="left" valign="middle">We prototype our work to ensure important details are <b>captured in an interactive format</b>, and to make the hand-off between designer &amp; engineer as smooth as possible </td> </tr><tr> <td align="left" valign="middle"><br /></td> <td align="left" valign="middle">Testing tells us if we're successful in reaching our goals. Some projects require testing and iterative design phases (hence the planning)</td> </tr><tr> <td align="left" valign="middle"><br /></td> <td align="left" valign="middle">Conversions. Growth. New connections with more users. This is how we measure goals.</td></tr></tbody></table>Stephaniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10793561148143943591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5637279501601618448.post-27895457182900595142013-03-11T10:28:00.003-07:002013-03-12T17:04:17.415-07:00Good Management - Working from Home Takes TeamworkThe funny thing about working from home is that you rely on your co-workers and especially your managers even more than when you go to an office. I have worked in corporate offices, I have cranked out work on-site at start-ups, I've designed large scale websites in corporate environments, in agency environments, and at home. And you know what? It always comes down to management. <br /><br /><b>Good Management Handles the Work</b><br />Over the course of 2009 and 2010 I worked on a very successful <a href="http://www.cengage.com/owl/" target="_blank">project for Cengage Learning</a> and - I never met my clients - ever.&nbsp; However the project was managed very well by Cengage's internal team. My client/manager understood the entire scope of the project and was able to break down all the work into a very effective process. <b>He communicated everything very clearly to the team, including a schedule, all the deliverables he expected, and when he wanted them</b>. We always had two-way conversations about the work and we thoroughly reviewed my output on a regular basis.&nbsp; My client was always clear about my pace of work, and I was always clear about his deadlines (this ensured that I could effectively manage my time as a remote resource for Cengage). Good remote managers are: Focused on business. They are not emotional or insecure, instead they are confident and goal orientated. But most importantly they communicate well, are organized and decisive. I cannot reiterate enough how important these qualities are. <br /><br /><b>Bad Management = Insecurity</b><br />And I've had bad managers too, we all have. The biggest pain point of working with these people is that we need to compensate for their insecurities. Maybe you've worked for somebody who is indecisive, they are unsure about what they want? Perhaps you literally do your boss' job? Often with boot strapped start-up companies I see entrepreneurs struggle with making decisions because they are worrying about money. At one start-up I worked at in San Francisco, I would watch the CTO pound his fist and demand that the entire company work at least from 7am to 7pm. This is clearly an insecure way to try to run a company and speaks volumes for how the CTO valued other people's time. I did notice this same CTO sneak out of the office and take entire afternoons off.&nbsp; <b>Which leads to my main point, only bad insecure managers want to corral their employees around them <u><i>so they can make themselves feel better</i></u></b>.<br /><br /><b>Remember, it's the internet!</b><br />My advice to Yahoo! and Marissa Meyer is this - Make sure your managers can handle their jobs.&nbsp; We "eat the dog food". We are already doing so much work online it seems waste full to drive back and forth to redundant offices.<i><b> The point of being onsite is to collaborate</b></i>. If your managers don't enable collaboration then what are they doing? There's nothing more frustrating than commuting for over 2 hours a day only to watch your boss waste time in the office. <br /><br /><br />Stephaniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10793561148143943591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5637279501601618448.post-12890143559602758022013-02-28T15:39:00.001-08:002013-02-28T15:44:10.428-08:00Fabulous Custom Website for A Fabulous Custom Home BuilderWe're proud to announce another logo, website and collateral materials for a local custom home builder, <a href="http://www.bementandsons.com/">Bement &amp; Sons Construction, INC</a>.<br /><br />Marty, our client,&nbsp; makes some of the most amazing custom homes I have ever seen. A beautiful fusion of Old World European design and modern construction.&nbsp; Evey detail has been thought about, from the accents, the systems and the <a href="http://worthingtongreenmd.com/" target="_blank">location</a> of his homes. The end result is&nbsp; a beautiful and luxurious home. If you're looking for dream home or considering having a custom home built in Maryland, you ought to check out <a href="http://bementandsons.com/">Bementandsons.com</a><span id="goog_1750900626"></span><span id="goog_1750900627"></span> today. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Uay3So4wuF8/US_pMh-x0_I/AAAAAAAADM8/lUuWmOGXQU4/s1600/HomePage.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Uay3So4wuF8/US_pMh-x0_I/AAAAAAAADM8/lUuWmOGXQU4/s1600/HomePage.png" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Skn1YXT2BQQ/US_o02SkhNI/AAAAAAAADM0/IgBkn5qSAf0/s1600/BementAndSonsLogo.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Skn1YXT2BQQ/US_o02SkhNI/AAAAAAAADM0/IgBkn5qSAf0/s1600/BementAndSonsLogo.png" /></a></div><br /><br />Stephaniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10793561148143943591noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5637279501601618448.post-52368394137856988902013-01-24T14:50:00.000-08:002013-01-24T15:17:48.648-08:00The Pantheon of Interactive Design JobsHappy 2013! I hope everybody survived 2012 and is looking forward, not back.<br /><br />There seems to be a bit of confusion about different design roles in the interactive fields. Too many designers I meet are confused by job listings they read. Too many job listings are cut and pasted together, even I don't understand who that company is looking for.<br /><br />Recently I've been helping companies hire interactive design talent. I know soooo many people and I like to make them all happy. I haven't really formalized this but I'm toying with the idea of becoming a recruiter myself... If anybody wants to help me formalize this idea let me know! <br /><br />If you are a graphic designer looking to do more interactive work, or if you're trying to hire interactive designers, take a look at my list. I've defined the various roles and described the nature of the work. Feel free to comment. <br /><br /><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Steph's guide to interactive design roles:</span></span><br /><br /><b><span style="font-size: large;">UI Designer</span></b><br />This person designs "user interfaces" and they usually do "front-end" code. All the stuff that you actually SEE on a web page is produced with&nbsp;&nbsp; HTML, CSS, and Javascript code. This is often a production, junior role. <br /><br /><b><span style="font-size: large;">Information Architect (IA)</span></b><br />Aka Information designer. They organize the layout and the flow of information. This is really important.&nbsp; IA's create <u>wireframes</u> and <u>site-maps</u>. They use programs like Adobe Illustrator, InDesign, Omni Graffle &amp; Visio. They do not draw pretty designs.&nbsp; Writers can be IAs, as the design is more about how a web page (or app view) <i><b>reads</b></i> than how it looks. <br /><br /><b><span style="font-size: large;">Visual Designer / Interactive Art Director</span></b><br />Other names used for "web designer". These designers draw the pretty interface design and usually somebody else codes. In some companies the visual designer will take <u>wireframes</u> from the IA and then render them into a final design using Photoshop (or Fireworks).<br /><br /><b><span style="font-size: large;">Interaction Designer</span></b><br />This is like a bonus skill, I rarely see it headlining a job listing. These people are going by the name of UX designer these days. Interaction designers detail the step-by-step "flow" of interactive components. It really helps to be able to code, just to prototype and test out interactivity. <br /><br /><b><span style="font-size: large;">User Experience Designer (UX) </span></b><br />This is what some agency's call their IAs. It's really all these skills rolled into one. I think UX designers should have additional research, strategy, and heuristic skills. They should be able to conduct user tests, &amp; do other research. <br /><br /><b><span style="font-size: large;">Web Product Designer or Product Manager</span></b><br />This is the most senior of interactive design roles unless, of course it's a design manager role, in which case you should be able to do this level of work too. Gmail is an example of something that is a <u><i>product</i></u> more than a website. The Web Product Designer is a UX designer who makes "applications" - complex, interactive apps and websites. I don't see many people advertise for Web Product Designers though, they usually advertise for UX designers. A lot of web Product Managers come from design and UX backgrounds. You'll find this kind of work at a lot of agencies these days as everybody wants an integrated app for their company. <br /><br /><b><span style="font-size: large;">Marketing &amp; Social Media</span></b><br />So much of the web is interconnected so it's good to know online marketing. For example, designers should understand how search engines, social media, and email will interconnect with their clients website.&nbsp; Good web marketing people are familiar with analytic and reporting systems and they make good money. <br /><br /><b><span style="font-size: large;">Should designers know HTML, CSS, Javascript or not? </span></b><br />Many interactive jobs list coding skills as part of the job requirements. Virtually every designer, and writer, and project manager, I have ever met has asked, "Does this company really expect me to code too?"&nbsp; There <b><i>is</i></b> a difference between understanding <b><i>how</i></b> HTML and CSS <i><b>work</b></i> - and actually hand-coding HTML and CSS.&nbsp; But most of the job listings I see do not make this distinction. <b>So recruiters, if you are reading this <i>please</i> make sure your job listing clearly states if the designer actually needs to write code. </b><br /><br />Although I am proud of my coding skills I have found these skills make me LESS money. Designers who can code tend to get more <i>production</i> work and miss out on creative roles they've trained for.&nbsp; Coding skills can prevent designers from advancing in their career.&nbsp; <i><b>This is a big reason why a lot of talent won't respond to a poorly written job description.</b></i> If I see a role for a User Experience designer that requires coding then I immediately expect the job the pay over $140,000.00. NOT $40k.&nbsp; Why? Because these are different jobs (literally a UI designer job and an information architect job). There are some instances where it's good to have a designer who can code but most companies and agencies aren't set up this way. They don't merge these roles together. Agencies will merge these roles if they can get away with it to save money (but this makes people unhappy). I only see web start-ups do a good job at merging coding with design and usually these people know what they're doing.Stephaniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10793561148143943591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5637279501601618448.post-20172594603125276722012-08-08T12:13:00.000-07:002012-08-08T12:13:18.610-07:00User Experience Design is Not a Sprint - It's a ProcessOne of the biggest problems I see in my design practice is the design "sprint". A sprint is where a designer (like me) will crank out a lot of various designs very quickly. I can do this, I am good at it actually, but it's a bad way to do interface design. Sprints came from the advertising agency world and really has zero place in web product development. I think a lot of people don't understand how to do SCRUM / Agile development and assume that you can "go Agile" with design by having your designer do sprints. <br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hsFL-ma5s4c/UCK5QGPnGeI/AAAAAAAADKY/0176pVa0SW8/s1600/Sprinters-vs-Tomato.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="278" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hsFL-ma5s4c/UCK5QGPnGeI/AAAAAAAADKY/0176pVa0SW8/s640/Sprinters-vs-Tomato.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A sprint competition - vs. - a results oriented growth process. Which is better?</td></tr></tbody></table>On the left are Olympic sprinters running for gold. They are <i><b>competing </b></i>with other sprinters simply to be <i><b>fastest</b></i>.&nbsp; The one and only <i><b>goal</b></i> in this competition is speed. Only one person wins. On the right is a tomato plant from my garden bearing 50+ tomatoes and it's still growing, a lot. I think this is a good metaphor for technology start-ups since <i><b>the tomato follows a <u>growth</u>&nbsp; <u>process</u> to bear fruit</b></i>.<br /><br />The tomato starts as a seed (the founder's idea) and then sprouts to life with some water (funding). As the plant "starts" you have to nurture it carefully give it water, sunlight and nutrients (i.e. make strategic decisions about your business). Only by giving your tomato some love will the plant grow, the more sun/water/nutrient love you give it, the faster it grows. But you still can not rush the process. You must let the plant perform it's growth process naturally, be patient, and soon it will start flowering. Flowering is like launching your product and just because you've launched doesn't mean you're done! You're simply in the flowering phase, attracting bees (users). If you're tomato has started &amp; grown well it will have a profusion of flowers. If you're stingy with your love to the tomato, it will show, and you won't get that many flowers, and it won't be enticing to the bees.&nbsp; Incidentally it helps to have other flowering plants around your veggie because this really get's the bees excited about your tomato. This is like positioning your start-up well in the marketplace. User-bees visit (your website) &amp; pollinate (interact with) your plant, eventually creating fruit. Once pollinated the fruit (revenues) still need to ripen. At first, the fruit is slow so you keep tending to your plant, ripping out weeds, eradicating pests, giving it love, making it and the bees as happy as you can. If you check-out for a week or so, you can undermine all the effort you already put in, and literally loose your fruit before it ripens. Just like Digg.com. If you're a good start-up gardener you'll have so many tomatoes you'll have to "put them away" (save money in the bank). <br /><br />Over the past year I've encountered the sprint a little too often, and they never work out. Especially for complicated software products this is a stupid way to approach design. <i><b>An interface is a visual and sensory experience.</b></i> <i style="color: red;"><b>You NEED visual and interactive design thinking to translate the technical back-end components into something meaningful for <u>human beings</u>.</b></i> In a start-up environment, is it the designer's purpose to compete with the rest of the team? Is their only goal to be fast? To "beat" other people in the company? Are the executives supposed to be like trainers? Constantly staring at the clock freaking out about time?&nbsp; <br /><br />Why do so many people like the idea of design sprints? I would LOVE to hear other people's thoughts. Is it about money? Do executives feel like their saving money by trying to rush the process? Is it about ego? Is it fun to make creatives perform circus tricks? When I meet a "hurry, hurry" entrepreneur I never understand why they are in such a rush. It just makes me wonder if they have a drug problem, seriously. I just do not get it. Somebody please comment.Stephaniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10793561148143943591noreply@blogger.com0